"We will carpet bomb them into oblivion. I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out," Cruz said at the Rising Tide Summit in Cedar Rapids.

Speaking to reporters before his speech, Cruz said the U.S. "should do whatever is necessary to defeat and destroy" Islamic State, including taking out the oil fields and processing facilities that support the terror group.

The Republican Senator from Texas also criticized the idea of political correctness during his speech.

“We’ve seen the neighbors of the San Bernardino terrorists who said I suspected something, I thought something was wrong, but I didn’t want to say it because it wasn’t politically correct," Cruz said. "We see on college campuses and universities the speech police telling people you can’t speak unless it is sanitized."

He also took shots at the government's collection of data and the records of U.S. citizens.

“How about the federal government, the Obama administration, spend less time trying to read your and mine emails and phone calls and more time stopping radical Islamic terrorism," Cruz said at the summit.

People listen as Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks during the Rising Tide Summit at The U.S. Cellular Center on Saturday, December 05, 2015 in Cedar Rapids. Brian Powers/The Register